Six US broadband providers including AT&T, CenturyLink, FairPoint, Frontier, Verizon and Windstream have submitted a proposal to the FCC to speed broadband deployment to more than 4 million Americans living in rural areas. They also announced an agreement with three organisations that represent small carriers on a framework for complementary reform. Joining the six companies in support of reform are the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies and Western Telecommunications Alliance. The two complementary plans called America’s Broadband Connectivity Plan share goals including modernising the federal USF so that it is focused on building and sustaining broadband networks. Consistent with the National Broadband Plan, a new Connect America Fund (CAF) would transition the USF over five years to a focus on broadband deployment. Features of the plan include connecting virtually all Americans to broadband access within five years without growing the USD 4.5 billion USF and targeting support to broadband deployment in areas where there is no business case for companies to provide service. It also includes promoting efficiency by targeting support precisely to identified high-cost areas, and supporting only one provider in each area. The plans also include fundamentally reforming the Intercarrier Compensation (ICC) system that governs how communications companies bill one another for handling traffic, gradually phasing down these charges. The aspects of this part of the plan would transition terminating intercarrier compensation to a uniform default rate of USD 0.0007 per minute over a five- to eight-year timeframe.
The board of directors of the USTelecom industry group is offering its endorsement of the America’s Broadband Connectivity plan as providing a forward-looking framework from which all participants in the broadband ecosystem can work together towards common goals of achieving expanded broadband deployment. The NCTA is supporting the universal service reform principles of the National Broadband Plan. CTIA will work with the parties and commission on these issues and on the creation of an ongoing mobility fund that will facilitate the wireless broadband goals of the president and the commission.
The board of directors of the USTelecom industry group is offering its endorsement of the America’s Broadband Connectivity plan as providing a forward-looking framework from which all participants in the broadband ecosystem can work together towards common goals of achieving expanded broadband deployment. The NCTA is supporting the universal service reform principles of the National Broadband Plan. CTIA will work with the parties and commission on these issues and on the creation of an ongoing mobility fund that will facilitate the wireless broadband goals of the president and the commission.
